At work

June this year brought the most extraordinary week.  IMC was a week of working hard on a single painting under the concentrated tutelage of a collection of eminent illustrators, people who are at the top of their field, and have an understanding of what it takes to do great illustration work, forged through years of putting themselves wholly into their art, having it judged by art directors, and continually drawing, creating, drawing.

And there were also my fellow students.  Some of them are professional artists in their own right, some are students just out of college, some like me, are people who have done art all our lives, but needed a little something more to give us a jump start.  There was a general atmosphere of learning.  We all knew that we were there to learn, and were looking for insights everywhere.  And the insights turned out to be available around every corner, from great illustrators coming around to your place and pointing out something that could make your work better, to astonishing talks from the likes of James Gurney, Donato Giancola, Iain McCaig, and Rebecca Guay (whose brainchild this class is). 

The picture above is my final from IMC.  The project was the children's book option: a book cover for a book called "The Trouble with ____" (we decide the subject).  From the outset I thought that the trouble should be with an individual, not a class of things.  With a little brainstorming help from Bob, I decided that it should be about dear goofy Aunt Sally who has decided she wants to be a superhero.